Sunday, March 01, 2009

I recently stumbled upon a blog that for some reason after a year of baking and blogging I hadn't seen yet. Gourmet Mom on the Go is such a cute blog done by Mandy with lots of fun ideas for recipes that kids can help with and such yummy things--like this or this and many more! What do you think caught my eye? Why THESE! Cookies! You had to know. Cookies that I just had to make and cookies that were really good.

At first I wasn't totally happy because they came out thinner than I like and thinner (my butter may have been too soft/warm) than Mandy's pictures--go see! ;) But they are very tasty and worth trying sometime. They are a perfectly chewy cookie! Since they were a bit thin, I thought ice cream sandwiches would be great. And the kids loved them. (I didn't have one/two with ice cream sandwiched in between, but all the boys and Kevin ate one and liked it. I have been using the excuse that they have an element of nutrition about them to keep "tasting" them. There's oats and almonds--total nutrition! ;) Give these a try for a great chewy chocolate chip cookie.

In a normal blender (I used a food processor) grind all together:4 oz. (3/4 C) Whole almonds 8 oz. (about 2 1/3 C) oatmeal (I was just a little short and used 2 1/4 cup of quick cooking oats)2 oz. (1/4 C) white sugar In mixer cream: 1 C butter (2 sticks) 12 oz. (1 ½ C) Brown Sugar Then add:2 eggs 1 t. vanilla 1 t. soda 1 t. salt To creamed mixture add:Ground oats and almonds 4 oz. (1 C) white flour (I used 1 1/4 cup to make up for being short on the oats)12 oz. Semi-sweet chips 3.5 oz. Milk Chocolate bar chopped (I used a Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar with almonds-that's what I had and figured it would go well with the ground almonds in the cookies--it did!)Mix all together. (Reserve some chocolate to top cookies before baking to beautify. I didn't do this, but have many times before) Drop by Tablespoons or cookie scoop onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake in a convection oven 350* 9 min. or until lightly golden. If you do not have a convection oven, bake at 375* for 10 min. Because of the high brown sugar content – these cookies would be great frozen and then thawed – they become even more chewy. (I've got some in the freezer right now--more so I'd not eat them!) ;)

You may not know, but the Kansas state flower is the sunflower. Kansas Day was/is "celebrated" on Jan. 29 every year in the schools here. Parker brought home a recipe that I'd been wanting to try since then. We had some sunflower seeds (salted even though the recipe suggests unsalted, just cut the salt in the recipe at bit, which I forgot to do, they came out fine!) I will print the recipe as it was written, but add my changes in red. These turned out to be a great, also healthier cookie (with the changes I made). And I finally got to use the candy coated sunflower seeds I bought at World Market a few months back! Perfect.

One could easily pop the whole 3 oz. of these in your mouth in a short time. They are great little crunchy bites of goodness.

Sunflower Seed Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 egg(I used 1/4 cup Egg Beaters w/touch of yolk)

1 teaspoon almond extract (vanilla would work, but I really liked the almond)

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add egg and extract. Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, whisk together. Add to the creamed mixture just until combined. Drop by tablespoonfuls on parchment lined baking sheets, flatten slightly. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

Just make three batches of rice crispy treats, three different colors pressed into a pan one on top of the other. Fun and festive!

I've made these a number of times (Boy, the last ones under the "times" link are a lot more colorful. They are at the end of the post. I think I used a better kind of food coloring-Wilton gels.) Yummy treats!

I Love those candy coated sunflower seeds! I brought some back from Philly last year with the good intention of baking with them, but I finished them by the hand full before putting them in anything (other than my mouth). Yummy treats all arround!

It sure looks like you've been having fun. Both cookies look like something I would love. I've never seen candy coated sunflower seeds! I'll bet they're really cute! I'm going to keep my eye out for those.Sue